Profiles of Angel Investors and Groups

 

Imlay Investments
Atlanta
Founded 1990
Sig Mosley, President; John Imlay, Founder
Total amount invested: Undisclosed
Number of companies funded: 75-80
Who got money: Scentric

John Imlay made his fortune building an enterprise software company called Management Science America, which he sold to Dun & Bradstreet in 1990 for about $330 million. He hired Sig Mosley to manage his money; Mosely does angel investing in addition to running Imlay's stock portfolio. Imlay has no Web site, but Mosley is not hard to track down; he's plugged in to the network of attorneys and accountants that help get young Atlanta area tech companies off the ground. He usually invests in software and infrastructure companies. Right now he thinks data encryption is an overcrowded field, but data storage will keep growing. Last fall he joined with VCs and local angels in a $5.6 million first round for Scentric, an Atlanta firm that promises next-generation data storage solutions. One decidedly non-tech investment that has paid well: Imlay has a piece of the Atlanta Falcons football team.

Midwest

Indiana Venture Center/AngelNet
Indianapolis
www.indianaventurecenter.org
Founded: 2003
At least 200 angels statewide are looking at deals brought to their attention by IVC/AngelNet
Total amount invested: $3 million
Number of companies funded: 9
Who got money: VascAlert

Bruce Kidd started AngelNet in 2002 as a Web site designed to match up angels and entrepreneurs, but there was nothing to drive members of either party to the site. In 2003, non-profit Indiana Venture Center (IVC) was established to serve as a catalyst for the creation and growth of high-growth businesses in Indiana. Kidd went on staff and re-launched AngelNet as a part of IVC. Now Kidd is getting angel groups organized in cities around Indiana. Entrepreneurs can fill out a Business Profile on the site, and a "triage team" of 90 venture capitalists, securities and IP attorneys, bankers, CFOs, entrepreneurs and CEOs will inspect the submissions and help prepare their pitches before the most promising ones are sent out to likely angels. IVC even persuaded VascAlert, which was in Chicago, to move to West Lafayette, Ind., as it helped the firm raise $450,000. VascAlert, which makes monitoring software for dialysis, wasn't able to get the funding in Chicago.

Bob Geras
Chicago
(Read the full profile in the July 2005 issue of Inc. magazine)

Bill Weaver
Chicago
Angel Since: The late 1960s
Total amount invested: $3-5 million
Number of companies funded: 25-30
Who got money: CCC Information Services

When Inc. last wrote about Weaver, in 1991, about 400 deals came to him from all over the country, which he says was a big pain in the neck. He's a partner at Sachnoff & Weaver, a business practice law firm. The firm let him "play part-time venture capitalist" as long as it got the legal business from deals he'd arranged, which made sense, as it specialized in early-stage companies. In the '90s he had no problem raising $3 million in an afternoon, which was kind of unnerving. He's always co-invested with the players he rounds up, and estimates that he's raised $20-30 million for the firms he's invested in. Now he looks at about one deal a week. One hit: CCC Information Services, now publicly-traded. The firm provides estimates of used car values to insurance claims firms and collision repair services; the estimates are considered more accurate (and generally lower) than the old Blue Book system.

Steve Miller
Chicago
www.originventures.com
Angel Since: 1998
Total amount invested: More than $2 million
Number of companies funded: 10
Who got money: iNest

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